


The Question of Caroline Louisa

by Paul A (pedanther)



Category: Kay Harker Series - John Masefield
Genre: Gen, POV Third Person, Post-The Midnight Folk, Present Tense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-21
Updated: 2014-12-21
Packaged: 2018-03-02 14:36:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2815631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pedanther/pseuds/Paul%20A
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Do you ever miss it?" Edward asks suddenly, interrrupting his own description of his latest plan to raise the statue of St George from the ocean bed.</p>
<p>Caroline Louisa takes a sip of tea while she considers the question.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Question of Caroline Louisa

**Author's Note:**

  * For [smokefall](https://archiveofourown.org/users/smokefall/gifts).



"Do you ever miss it?" Edward asks suddenly, interrrupting his own description of his latest plan to raise the statue of St George from the ocean bed. (The Archbishop of Santa Barbara has already said he doesn't mind the statue being left to the coral and the sea creatures, but Edward has his pride; he promised to see the treasures of Santa Barbara returned, and he'll never be happy to leave the job incomplete.)

Caroline Louisa takes a sip of tea while she considers the question. No need to ask what _it_ is, of course; all the adventure and excitement of life among the Midnight Folk, fighting monsters one night and hunting lost treasures the next.

"Of course I miss it sometimes," she says, "but I have never for a moment regretted it. Wild midnight rides on horses as fast as the wind and confrontations with thieves in their dens are all very well in their place, but the person who could do that sort of thing wasn't the person Kay needed. So I became the person he did need." Shadows dance in her eyes for a moment before being dispelled by the warmth of the fond gaze she slants upward, toward the room where Kay is sleeping. "And I wouldn't have missed this for the world."

"Will you go back to being the person you were, when Kay is old enough to do without you?"

"I don't think I'll ever be quite that person again," says Caroline Louisa thoughtfully, "even if I do return to my former estate. No one may cross the same river twice, and all that. And I think you may be making an unsound assumption; not meaning any offense to you, Edward, but you think about things a certain way because of who and what you are. He'll outgrow you one day, that's the way of the world; and perhaps he'd have outgrown the person I was; but boys and girls don't usually ever grow old enough to do without family entirely. We shall just have to take that question as it comes."

"And until then?" Edward asks, looking very serious.

She catches his meaning, and smiles. It is not any of the happy smiles that have been frequent visitors to her face since she came to live with Kay; it is a far older smile, one few people have seen and all would prefer to see directed at someone else.

"If it comes to that," she says, "I may have changed, but I am not entirely without resources. I should like to see anyone try anything while I am here."

And then suddenly she is just Caroline Louisa again, the nice woman who is Kay Harker's guardian, smiling a gentle smile and offering a plate of biscuits. "Now, have a macaroon, do, and tell me more about this pontoon you're considering."


End file.
